Improvement in railroad rails



J. DowNEY.

Improvement in Railroad Rails.

-Patented Oct. 22 1872. zy..

UNITED STATES PATENT CEEIGE.

JOHN DOWNEY, OF J OHNSTOWN PENNSYLVANIA.

IMPROVEMENT IN RAILROAD RAILS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 132,451, dated October22, 1872.

To all whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN DowNEY, of Johnstown, in the county of Cambriaand State ot' Pennsylvania, have invented a new and Improved Iron andSteel Continuous Rail, as applied to railways, of which the following isa specification:

Figure l is aplan view ofa track formed of rails constructed andsupported between iron sections or flanged bars secured togetheraccording to my invention. Fig. 2 is a sectional elevation oi' the same.Fig. 3 is a side view ofthe rail and one of its iianged supports. Fig.4t is a cross-section of a rail and its anged supports, showing the hookor locking bar.

My invention relates to an improvement in the class of compound railroadrails where-- in the rail proper is secured between ilanged side-bars;and it consists in applying a clamping-bar to unite the flanged bars andthe rail, as hereinafter described.

In the drawing, A indicates a rail having a steel head, provided with alongitudinal tongue, a, and B, iron sections or rbars, provided eachwith lateral and vertical iianges or extensions I) c. These parts areIitted t0- gether, as shown in Fig. 4, so that the plane surfaces of thebars B lie tlat against .the tongue a of the rail A, and their upperedges form bevel shoulders on which the head of the rail rests. As ameans of locking the parts together, l employ a bar, C, which is formedwith a hook at one end. This hook or clamp bar ts over the lateral angeof one ofthe bars B, and the other end of the saine is turned up overthe corresponding flange of the opposite bar B. Thusthe bar G passesintermediately through slots in the respective parts of the compoundrail and locks them together. rail are made larger than those in thebars B, so that no strain from expansion orv contraction ofthe parts, orfrom the weight of trains passing over the rails, may be brought uponthe bars C.

In practice I design to make the rail and its supports B oi' equallength, and to lap the supports past the rail for one third theirlength, as represented in Fig. 2. Thus arranged they will break joints7with the rail and form a continuous bearing for it. That part of thecompound rail which projects below the lateral iianges lits intransverse slots in the sleepers, and said flanges rest on the uppersurface thereof. By this arrangement of the clamp-bar with the partscomposing the rail they are locked together in the most secure anddurable manner.

I do not claim a clamp-bar in combination with arail or rails, but,

Havingthus described my invention, what I claim as new, and. desire tosecure by Letters Patent, is-

The hook or locking bar C, arranged with the bars B B b c and tongue aof the rail A, in the manner described.

JOHN DOWN EY.

Witnesses:

SoLoN C. KEMON, A. W. HART.

The slots in the tongue a of the

